Hilton: SFO Chalkboard Mural

My friend, Mike Poland, and I spent a great deal of time designing and painting a chalkboard style mural hallway for the Hilton by San Francisco International Airport. It was a lot of work, but well worth it!

Project Street Art: Part I

Toward the end of my time as art director for the Living Room Gallery in Stroudsburg, PA, I had pitched an idea to my committee about a public street art initiative. Because of our success as the best art gallery in the Poconos (voted best on Greatest Around the Poconos), we had developed a real art scene that had been dwindling and waning for years. With our supporters, a fiscal sponsor and some serious wind in our sails, we developed a plan that we pitched to the borough council to create an 80 foot wall structure in the middle of Main Street, where a fire had destroyed a row of buildings 7 years prior. Many people had asked me about that specific spot so many times, and this plan would cover it and hopefully create more of a cultural atmosphere. We had every aspect donated including the wood, paint and nails. The artists were chosen and partnered with businesses to depict their store fronts. The entire project concluded on March 24th, 2014, with a live painting event where 25+ artists took to the streets and finished their pieces. At some point, I wrote the words "A Beautiful Moment Happened Here" on the wall, as all the volunteers had come together and made something incredible for the town to enjoy. That was only the beginning.

Digital Mockup by Sonia Leticia.

The live painting event May 24th, 2014.

Mine and Sonia's panel!

Photo by Eileen Noelle.

The buzz was completely tangible. We had stirred the pot and shaken things up. What next? How do you top an 80 foot mural wall in the middle of a conservative town? Well, we had been under the umbrella of an organization for Project Street Art: Part I, and we truly wanted to be our own entity. At that point, the committed members of our group consisted of myself, Sonia Leticia, Jody Singer, Brandon Jones and Ashley Fontones. We devised a plan to bring TEN MORE MURALS to Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg. We picked locations, spoke with owners and created a proposal that even included a blessing from Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation. The borough council knew we had dotted our "i's" and crossed our "t's". And so it began- Project Street Art: Part II- Ten murals, an international competition, fund-raising events, a mobile application called The Art Map App to help navigate all locations, numerous partnered business, ad space within the app, another live painting day (this time with 150+ volunteers) and even an after party to commemorate such an incredible event. Check out the promotional video I put together to get the word out:

We spent most of the month of September prepping walls and assisting artists with their project. A panel of three judges chose all the winning submissions, including an artist from LA, two artists from Philadelphia and one from Brooklyn. All the rest were local artists. We even had gained a bit of international attention, and had gotten submissions from other countries. Our flyer was shared by Greg Hildebrandt (of Star Wars poster fame), and our committee did countless interviews with TV, radio and even spoke with high schools and a university about the importance of public art. The live painting event concluded on September 27th, 2014. All ten sites had the designing artist(s), volunteers, mobile musical acts, food and a (in addition to The Art Map App) printed map for people to navigate to all locations. Here is the final outcome:

I consider Project Street Art to be one of my most cherished memories and a time when I could feel change happening all around me.